Aritcle 28

This article made me really think about a lot of things. The first thing I thought about is how good of an idea the Eden Alternative really is. I know the thought of putting either of my parents in nursing home someday petrifies me. I'm really not sure if I could even do it but knowing that I could be putting them in a warm, loving, comforting place; a nursing home that models the Eden alternative would be a lot more reassuring for both my parents and I. I completely agree with Thomas that "Care for the elderly is not simply about health care or medicine or technology. It’s about creating the right environment and caring relationships that sustain an older adult in his last years." Knowing that my parents would be going into an environment where they would receive care and be able to give care as well would make the decision a lot easier. I also think the Eden Alternative is great idea because it has proven to improve overall health for elder adults and that is obviously a very positive thing. If we can make the quality of life better for the individuals that are put in nursing homes even a little better, we are doing a great thing. Just like we need relationships, so don't the elderly. And Thomas states that "Relationships are the foundation of good health care." Which is something most nursing homes seem to neglect and I think that’s a huge mistake. It should be a top priority of every nursing home. It should be a necessity for the nurses and doctors to form relationships with their patients. I also think bringing animals into nursing homes is a wonderful idea. Animals can bring so much joy into the patient’s lives; they could be their companions. As they say "a dog is a mans best friend" and I'm a firm believer of that. When I really thought about it I could definitely see how hard it would be to try and transform ever nursing home to fit the Eden model. Not everyone is open to change, which to me is very disappointing because I don’t see how anyone could be against this idea. According to the article, the Institutions that have adopted the Eden Model have only had successful and positive results, so my question is why aren’t there more and more nursing homes adopting this model? I really hope that within the near future all nursing homes will decide to adopt the Eden model. If we can make the quality of life better for the elderly why wouldn't we? I think Bill and his wife are doing a great job and I hope they continue to have success with their efforts.

Article 10

I found this article to be pretty interesting. What I found most interesting is that according to Dr. Vaillant just having a more positive outlook on life can really make a difference on how successfully you age. The article really made me think about it and it definitely does make a lot of sense. When your able to look at things in a more positive outlook it leaves less room for stress, anger, loneliness, etc. Another finding that I found to be quite interesting is that good genes do not always account for better aging. I'm really glad that this study showed that because it’s kind of comforting knowing that we can have a say in how good we age or even how long we can live. Obviously there are just some things in life we can not control, but if genes don’t always account for how we age then it’s nice to know that our life decisions and actions can help us age better. I find the "seven keys to aging well" to be somewhat obvious. We all know that non smokers have a better chance of living longer then smokers and excising more can make keep us healthier. But what surprises me is that Americans know these things and yet still choose to live lifestyles that go against these "seven factors". After reading this article it really made me take into account how I look at life and how I deal with the stressors in my life. There are definitely times when I do look at the glass half empty and this article really brought that to my attention. It also made me look at how I look at my past experiences. I need to make sure I can pick out the positive memories and experiences and focus on them and not the negative ones. I really liked the last quote that Vaillant made, "worry less about cholesterol and more about gratitude and forgiveness". I think that’s one thing that our society has forgotten to do. We don't also appreciate the things we have and we definitely know how to hold grudges. I truly believe that by doing those two things we can live much happier lives. Being able to appreciate everything that we have and be able to forgive people for things can only make us better people and make us more content will our lives. This article has really made me stop and think about how I look at life and how I should look at the “bumps in the road”. If it means aging better and living a happier longer life it’s worth it to me. Not only will doing the things that Vaillant states will help us age successfully but I believe it will make people live a truly better life; a more complete life.

Article 6 Blog

I found this article to be very interesting. Obviously it’s a very controversial topic and many people have very different views on it. The first thing I thought of after reading the article was that if scientist really do come up with a way to slow aging, won't everyone start to take advantage of it? Everyone whether they will admit it or not is scared of dying, so if anyone could get the opportunity to live longer I truly believe they would take advantage of it; maybe take it too far. And to be honest that really scares me because I think slowing down the aging process could cause a lot of problems to arise. Some of the problems that concern me are overpopulation, more disease and economic problems. With people living longer lives these are all things we need to be concerned about. So would the pro's of slowing down aging and allowing people to live longer lives really out weight the con's? Which leads into another thought I have, who really would want to live for a century or longer? We all know that as we get older we loose a lot of the abilities that we have when we are younger. So we would be living with worse hearing and eye sight and then there’s the likelihood of developing some other type of medical problem or disease. I guess my concern with it is would our quality of life be good enough to be living for over a 100 years? I also think it’s pretty crazy that you can buy resveratrol tablets over the counter because they still do not have a proven value in humans and they are not manufactured under the Food and Drug Administration. I just think that there are enough drugs out there that are probably causing more problems then doing any good and this drug could be doing the same thing. I also feel like all the time that researchers have spent trying to figure a way to slow down aging could be spent towards finding a cure for cancer or some other disease that is killing millions of people everyday. I can definitely see why people want to slow down aging and live longer lives but at the same time there are more important things to find cures to. The money and time spent trying to find a way to slow down aging should be spent on more important diseases and disorders that are killing people by the millions. To sum this all up I personally would not want to live to be over 100 because when your 100 you can’t do the things that you really enjoyed doing when you were young; you really can’t enjoy the simple pleasures that bring you the most joy. I also don't want to out live all of my friends and relatives. Yes I would be living a long life but without the people I care most about it wouldn't be worth living. I think slowing down aging is something to look into but I don’t think its something I find to be necessary.